James V. Franco: There's still a lot of loose ends

Tonight, maybe some of the questions about the Summit Apartment project will get answered when the city brings together the engineering firm for the developer and the concerned residents of the neighborhood.

There are still a bunch of loose ends to say the least. For example, while the initial project was approved as senior housing in 2011, it was changed to "luxury housing" sometime between then and when the developer, Roddy Valenti, started clearing the land in February.

There were some other changes too including the number of buildings decreasing from five to four, the unit configuration from 120 to 108 and the number of parking spots from 140 to 196.

As I mentioned Monday, changing the target audience from senior housing to whoever wants to rent luxury apartments isn't any major deal when the project is privately funded because, in theory, a private developer can rent to whoever he sees fit. But, pitching it as senior housing certainly makes it an easier sell when it comes to the neighbors and I dare say those charged with giving it a stamp of approval.

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As far as the other changes go, the city said they are insignificant enough to not warrant another trip in front of the Planning Commission. The thing is, the revised site plans have not been submitted -- or if they have they have not been made public -- so I don't know how the city can make that determination without seeing site plans or any other documentation related to the modified project.

Furthermore, I'm at a loss as to how construction can even start without anyone in the city seeing plans for the modified project or exactly what the new project entails outside of someone saying "Hey, we're going to do this, this and this." And someone else saying "OK, Have at it."

I'm not saying anything malicious is happening here but its certainly outside any protocol I've ever seen for a project in the city or anywhere else. My brother and I were under more municipal scrutiny when we used to build relatively tiny decks behind people's homes worth a few thousand dollars and this project is reportedly costing $13 million.

True, the city did issue a stop work order earlier this week but it was because the builder didn't notify anyone it was pouring a concrete foundation and therefore it was done without the proper inspection. Now that it is poured, I'm not sure how it can be inspected so we'll have to see what action, if any, the city takes.

I know, if my brother and I poured 10-inch tubes to support a 12-foot by 12-foot deck without having someone from the municipality make sure we dug down the required four feet, we'd have to rip it out and do it again. I just don't see it happening here given the way things have gone so far.

The most recent sweep, for lack of a better term, could snare nine New York City Democrats including state senators, a city council member and two political operatives thanks to secretly recorded conversations by ex-Sen. Shriley Huntley.

While no charges are yet filed against the new nine there has to be a reason their names were released by the feds and they are: Sens. Eric Adams, Ruth Hassel-Thompson, Jose Peralta and Velmanette Montgomery; City Council member Rubin Wills, former political consultant Melvin Lowe; and Curtis Taylor, a former press adviser to Smith.

That comes on the heels of Sens. Malcolm Smith and John Sampson getting indicted by the federal government on corruption charges. Smith, a New York City councilman and two Republican Party bosses were indicted thanks to a secret recording by Assemblyman Nelson Castro.

Governors and lawmakers been talking about cleaning up Albany since Christ was a carpenter and it's still a cesspool despite all sorts of commissions, panels, bodies, legislation and campaign literature (the last was said with tongue firmly in cheek.)

Nothing has worked until an aggressive and obviously pretty smart U.S. Attorney got involved because the Capitol is its own culture -- the good ole'boys network -- and those in that culture don't want to rock the boat and turn on each other. Of course, self preservation is of paramount importance to many politicians so when faced with the choice of spending more than a few years behind bars or turning on your fellow good ole' boy it's a no brainer.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is spearheading the effort in the Southern District and unlike the U.S. Attorney in the North District, Richard Hartunian, who is going after former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, Bharara has people on tape. Hartunian, on the other hand, has nothing but a federal statute that's been deemed unconstitutional and an old horse.

I do think the vast majority of state legislators, just like all politicians, are good people and in it for basically the right reasons, but the Capital needed a good scrubbing and has for a long time.